Saturday, March 20, 2010

How long is too long?

I was just pulling fabrics for a back, looking through my blues and reds for anything "BIG ENOUGH".....

I had NO IDEA I had had this fabric this long...look at that selvage! 1995?!? What am I waiting for, the Rapture or something? Sheesh! If the date is right, I've had this since IDAHO. It has moved with me to two places in Texas, to South Carolina, to North Carolina. It should get it's own air miles by now!

There must have been 7 to 8 yards of this one fabric. (In other words, it must have been on SALE!! *LOL*) I think I wanted to keep it in one big piece for sashings, or setting triangles, or borders, or ALL OF THE ABOVE..but it's a really weirdo shade of blue/grey and I think it is time it finds a home.

Which brings me to another pet peeve of mine. There needs to be a term for selvages that are an inch or wider. Something like "Selvage Spam" We are paying for the whole width of the fabric, but we sure can't USE the whole width of the fabric. This piece had wide selvage on BOTH SIDES...hummpphhh. So it took about 2" of the total width all together. What's up with this? Am I the only one this bugs?

Regarding your comment note about having to monitor due to trolls and spammers - are you getting the repeat poster whose girlfriend broke up with him and now he wants to post hasty pictures? Grrr. Clearly just a line to draw in people to his site. There ought to be a way to go after jerks like that.

I noticed some extra wide Selvages last week-end on some Maywood fabric.I save the selvages so it's ok, But an inch on each side is a bit much, I agree! Old fabric in my stash doesn't have a Date on it. That's how long it's been marinating in the Stash. I think I might have had some of that once also... What are you making with your BLUE???

Oh my! The selvage width topic is one that raises my ire. I teach beginner quiltmaking and now regularly alert students to this fact. A particular fabric manufacturer - who shall remain nameless - leaves us with 39" of useable fabric, and yet audaciously still charges the same amount as 45"-width fabric. Unless a quilter checks every bolt, we're at their mercy.

No, you are not the only one bothered by wide selvages. Especially if you are using a pattern that needs the full width of the fabric.

I have some fabrics that are probably from earlier than 1985 that just haven't worked yet for a quilt. A couple are double wide fabrics but are in mint and white or apricot and white so don't got with fabrics from nowadays! I also have some from my mom's stash that are much older even than that! Lately I have been using up some of those older ones for backs.

I love selvedges! I use them to make bags, fabric postcards, and am now tryig to collect enough for a quilt....yeah, so I'm a little 'strange'...LOL....but I do hate that they take up much more of the usable fabric than they need to. Claire

In the "old days" my mom used to say of unlabeled selvages, "Not very proud of it, are they?" Back then fabrics were 45" wide. Then they shrank to 42", but they're still sold as 45" wide. Now most of the time they're less--and some manufacturers are printing both selvages, or non-printing, as the case may be.They can't lower the price because they took the mills to other countries to save production costs, they said. I love the older fabrics, as long as they don't immediately fade in light.

You know, I never thought about that! It's astounding, now that you have brought it up. I realize that they have to have a selvedge, but 2"?, come on! That is as malicious as SPAM. Let's start an e-mail campaign, or something. When we find a company that does this, we should write to them and protest, really protest, at paying full price for goods that aren't full width.

Just think that fabric is just to beautiful to cut into...and now you have a reason to..LOL it is gorgeous fabric though...I love your terminology and yes I agree it bites I guess that is why they started making selvedge quilts so that every last bit can be used.

So many quilters are loving a good selvage like this one and perhaps why. They realized they paid good money for that too.Oh and Bonnie...you think your fabric has miles...try Europe and back a few times! Hee!!

I find the larger selvages usually come from the discount fabric shops, not from the Quilt shops, though occasionally I've had one from there as well. I always calculate yardage for a quilt using 40" usable width, but maybe I have to modify that to 39"??!! I've been saving my selvages too, so haven't been as bothered by them lately as I used to be :-).

I'm with Briarose. I love selveges!! I save mine, the fancier the better. However, when I was a 4-H sewing girl back in the 1970's, we used to get a true 45" across the width of fabric, now it's down to 42" if you're lucky. Not to mention the fact that we are paying more than 4 times what we paid back then. Sheesh!

Oh my gosh Bonnie, I LOVE that fabric!! It never would have lasted THAT long in my stash!LOL You could refer to the wide selvedges as Selvedges Suckers too! I have to tell....reading your blog and Miss Mary's from Quilt Hollow for the past few years inspired me to start my own blog in January--Redquilts. Thanks for all you inspire!

Since you bought it on sale, you probably bought it a year later than the date on the selvage. Besides sometimes the right occasion to use a particular just doesn't come up until later.

I remember those huge selvages, they bothered me too. Now I think they just cut the fabric shorter, instead of the 45-46 we used to get, so you don't have to notice as much how much you are missing. That bothers me too.

Yep, the selvages are wide and now the whole bolts are more narrow with the prices still increasing. We understand the price increases (most of the time) but narrower bolt widths mess with the patterns that still call for fabric widths of at least 42-44" cuts.

my comment is...they sent the fabric mills overseas so they could produce fabric and keep cost down. Right?? Well then why in the world is quilting fabric cost skyrocketing?? Then to beat all they have to make the fabric more narrow, plus add a wider selvage? Something wrong with this picture!

I just found some panels I bought a "few" years ago, too, when my daughter was 4yo - she is now 21! DUH! But I am finally retired and have been seriously, seriously quilting for the past few weeks and it feels great! Love it! Am in my niche! Thank You, Lord! ;-)

I just found some panels I bought a "few" years ago, too, when my daughter was 4yo - she is now 21! DUH! But I am finally retired and have been seriously, seriously quilting for the past few weeks and it feels great! Love it! Am in my niche! Thank You, Lord! ;-)